Britain 'must thrash the Aussies in medals table'

Britain's Olympic squad was today urged to "thrash" Australia in a repeat of the victory over their arch-rivals in Beijing.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt told how he would be overjoyed by Team GB beating the Australians again in the medals table at this year's Games.

During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Britain's sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe won a bet with his Australian counterpart Kate Ellis over which nation would win more gold medals. Team GB clinched 19 golds to Australia's 14.

Mr Hunt said: "I love Australia to bits, but it would give me no greater pleasure than to thrash them once again in the medals table. We want to beat France and Germany but most important of all, we need to beat the Aussies." But Australia's sports minister Mark Arbib hit back emphasising that his country "needed" to get a bigger gold medal tally than Britain, or at least match it, to achieve its aim of finishing in the top five. "We have seen record amounts of money and resources invested in Great Britain's Olympic programmes as they seek to meet the high expectations to perform at their home Olympics," he said.

Mr Hunt today announced £10 million sponsorship from Sainsbury's for the new School Games Competition over the next four years.

The London Games are to be broadcast across the world in 3D for the first time. NBC is to show more than 200 hours on a special channel, including the opening and closing ceremonies, it said today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The BBC is expected to offer some 3D coverage.